An email sent to Kennedy Center staff earlier this week by the center’s executive director says the building will “remain temporarily closed” pending an ongoing safety assessment.<\/p>\n
In the email, sent on Wednesday and obtained by ABC News, the center\u2019s executive director and chief operating officer, Matt Floca, gave no indication that the building will be reopening anytime soon after the President Donald Trump-aligned Kennedy Center board voted last month to close it for renovations<\/a> after a federal judge’s ruling blocked Trump’s name from appearing on the outside of the building.<\/p>\n Lettering and construction tarps on the exterior of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, on September 19, 2026 in Washington, DC.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Graeme Sloan\/Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Floca said no one can access the building’s grand hallways without permission and a hard hat, pointing to an ongoing “emergency egress assessment” of the building’s overhanging soffits — the underside of the building’s distinctive overhanging roof.<\/p>\n Floca said that the ongoing assessment will “determine whether, and under what conditions, the building can safely support occupants and be evacuated,” given that certain exits would be blocked during soffit repairs.<\/p>\n “We currently expect the assessment to be completed within the next one to two weeks and will share an update when it is complete, or sooner if the expected timing changes,\u201d Floca wrote in the email.\u00a0“This is an assessment timeline, not a reopening date. The immediate safety determination is separate from the scope and schedule of the broader renovation program.”<\/p>\n Floca said the main corridors of the building — the Hall of States, Hall of Nations and Grand Foyer — remain off limits, and that entry “requires express authorization and compliance with all prescribed safety controls, including hard hats and any other required personal protective equipment.”<\/p>\n Wearing such safety equipment “does not, by itself, authorize entry,” Floca noted.<\/p>\n A view of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC on October 1, 2026.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Saul Loeb\/AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered an update on the center’s closure by Friday, and Floca is expected to provide the judge with the same information he put in his Wednesday email, which was first reported by NBC News.<\/p>\n![\"Christopher](\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/fe1b71e7-251f-43f5-be7d-7909033614fe\/kennedy-center-2-gty-jef-261001_1790880969476_hpMain.jpg?w=375 "\\"Christopher")
<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>![\"Congress\"](\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/bf2db3f9-c997-4e05-8063-5398a555a98c\/kennedy-center-1-gty-jef-261001_1790880969516_hpMain.jpg?w=375 "\\"Congress\\"")
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